Procedures/78th/A2A/BVR

SCOPE and MOTIVATION

This Training Unit assumes understanding of Tactical Communication

Beyond Visual Range engagements are the most common A2A conflicts that modern era pilots have to master.

This unit aims to teach you how to stay alive minimize blue on blue situations and teach you how to use your weapons most effectively.

NOTE: ITALIC Phraseology is said on INTRA-FLIGHT. All other Communication is on INTER-FLIGHT (MAGIC)

BVR I - Basics

This part orients itself on this video by The Ops Center by Mike Solyom.

When a fighter is committed to an intercept, the goal is to end up in an offensive position with eyes on the target. But with the proliferation of modern air-to-air missiles, it is very likely that a target may decide to fire on an interceptor before that happens. That fight can happen at Beyond Visual Range, where the only view of the other aircraft is a blip on a radar screen — so how do you survive and win a Beyond Visual Range fight?

The overall strategy to winning any BVR fight is to simply get a weapon solution on your opponent without letting them get a weapon solution on you. (This is an oversimplification of a very complex process.)

Identify Friend or Foe (IFF)

Before a fighter can fire on another aircraft, that aircraft needs to be confirmed as a valid target. That process of identification is called IFF (Identify Friend or Foe).

Weapon Engagement Zone (WEZ)

There are many ways of preventing an enemy from getting a weapon solution, involving technical countermeasures like jamming, decoys, and chaff, as well as radar-defeating maneuvers like the Notch, and low radar cross-section airframes. All of these are great but share a common flaw: they are not guaranteed to work.

The only solution that always works is staying outside the kinetic range of the enemy's missiles.

The zone where an enemy's missile can kinematically reach you is called the Weapon Engagement Zone (WEZ).

For most Red Coalition fighters, a stern WEZ of 14 NM at 30,000 ft and 4 NM at 0 MSL is a good rule of thumb. WEZ is a highly dynamic figure and requires a great amount of experience to estimate correctly, so be conservative with your approximations.

Remember the four A's: Altitude, Airspeed, Aspect, Angle-off at Launch. High values increase the WEZ; low values decrease it. Altitude is by far the most important factor.

The "OUT" Maneuver

This leads to a simple strategy for survival: turn away from the attacker as quickly as possible. This is such an effective strategy that it even has its own name and brevity code.

To execute an OUT, make a tactical turn where you maintain airspeed throughout the turn and put the threat on your 6 o'clock. Unlike standard tactical turns, this maneuver is executed at full afterburner, since survival is the primary concern.

The radio call is:

 SHADOW11 OUT [DIRECTION]

Minimum Abort Range (MAR)

There is a specific distance at which you want to initiate your turn, called the Minimum Abort Range (MAR). We want to begin the turn such that throughout and after the maneuver we remain outside the enemy's WEZ. To determine this, we need to account for the distance consumed while executing an OUT. Factoring in closure rate and turn rate, this comes out to approximately 4 NM in most scenarios at 30,000 ft, and 2–3 NM at lower altitudes.

Adding this to a WEZ of 14 NM gives a MAR of 17–18 NM; adding one mile of margin gives a MAR of 19 NM at 30,000 ft. This is the distance at which you want to execute your OUT.

BVR II A - SKATE

In many defensive scenarios where the safety of the intercepting fighter is more important than the destruction of enemy assets, we have launch-and-leave tactics. Just like the name implies, ordnance is launched and then the fighter executes an OUT. Launch-and-leave preserves range between interceptors and the target, thereby keeping them outside of an adversary's WEZ — but it also points the fighter's weapons and sensors away from the target. Flying away makes confirmation of weapons effects more difficult and usually results in a lower probability of kill. However, this may be enough to accomplish the mission objective: if firing a missile at a hostile aircraft gets it to leave defended airspace, that's a win — even if it doesn't result in a kill.

Launch-and-leave tactics have their own brevity code, known as SKATE:

 SHADOW11 [SHORT / / LONG] SKATE

To understand the difference between SHORT SKATE, SKATE, and LONG SKATE, we need to introduce two more concepts.

The "IN" Maneuver

Similar to the OUT, the IN is a full afterburner turn that maintains airspeed and altitude, but puts the adversary on your 12 o'clock.

 SHADOW11 IN

The IN has approximately the same distance cost as the OUT.

Minimum Out Range / Desired Out Range (MOR / DOR)

The Minimum Out Range (MOR) is the distance to the adversary at which we can execute an OUT, then an IN, launch a second missile, and execute another OUT — all while staying outside the adversary's WEZ.

So in addition to the MAR, we account for one IN and one additional OUT maneuver:

 MOR = MAR + cost of IN + cost of OUT = 19 NM + 4 NM + 4 NM = 27 NM

SHORT SKATE / SKATE / LONG SKATE

SKATE is the overarching brevity for a launch-and-leave tactic. It is not a maneuver like the IN and OUT, but a tactic.

• A SHORT SKATE is defined by executing a single OUT at MAR (19 NM).
• A SKATE is executed at MOR (27 NM), with the intention of turning back in for a follow-up engagement.
• A LONG SKATE allows for two additional launch opportunities and is executed at:

 MOR + cost of IN + cost of OUT = 27 NM + 4 NM + 4 NM = 35 NM

BVR II B - BANZAI

In some scenarios where Defending a position is Essential to Mission Success a Higher Risk tactic might be acceptable. In a scenario where high risk is acceptable interceptors would lauch their ordinance and cotinoue on toward the target. This allows them to better assess the results of their shots and keep their weapons pointed toward the enemy in caase further shots are needed. Any Plan that follows this logic will fall inot the category of laucnch and decide.

The Brevity for this Doctrine is BANZAI

SHADOW11 BANZAI 

and defined as: Executing Launch and Decide Tactics with the INTENT TO MANEUVER INTO THE VISUAL ARENA. This is important since this is the only real way to confirm that a target has been destroyed. Remember that just because you see a Target disappear from your sensors after firiing at it doesn't mean that it was hit.

THE CRANK

The most important Maneuver here is going to be the CRANK like other important conecpts it has its own Breviy.

SHADOW11 CRANK [DIRECTION]

CRANK is defined as manuvering in the Direciton Indicated while illuminating the Bandit at the Radar Gimble. Put simply this means that when we CRANK we maneuver such that the Bandit remains at our Radar gimble limits. Allowing us to keep our sensors on the bandit while reducing closure rate and therefore range as much as possible.

Remember: RANGE IS SAFETY

Ex. We are on direct course towards a hostile and Launch a missile at 20NM that isslile finally reaches the target when we are 10NM apart. But if would crank and cut our closure in half then that final range would only be 15NM. with a WEZ of 14NM this can be the difference between life and death.

Since with a BANZAI we plan to get within the Visual Arena having a plan how to stay alive within it is very important. This Topic is called Air Combat Maneuvers (ACM)

BVR III - Shoot Doctrine and Sorting

BVR IV - Defensive Counter Air (DCA)

Now that we have an overview of what tactics exist, we need to figure out how to use them to defend a ground target.

DCA Lanes

To keep things organized in complex scenarios, the battlespace is divided into DCA lanes.

A lane might look like this:

[TODO: INSERT IMAGE]

Commit Line (CL)

IAW with theater ROE, an adversary crossing this line is declared hostile. The Commit Line will be prebriefed for all DCA sorties.

Low Risk Engagement Zone (LREZ)

This is the zone where the flight lead should only accept low-risk tactics, since there is no immediate threat. Some form of launch-and-leave would be used.

Medium Risk Engagement Zone (MREZ)

Here the flight lead must make a decision. If the force ratio is favorable enough that the risk of loss of life is low, a launch-and-decide tactic may be chosen; otherwise the flight lead should fall back to launch-and-leave tactics.

High Risk Engagement Zone (HREZ)

At this point the risk of loss of fighters may be acceptable, so a launch-and-decide tactic is most likely to be chosen.

The DCA Flow

Assume a flight of 2 F-16s flying their DCA orbit, as a group of 2 contacts closes in on the Commit Line.

MAGIC (the intercept controller) will call out the group for all fighters in the area:

 MAGIC POP UP NORTH GROUP BULLSEYE 030 40 25 THOUSAND TRACKING SOUTH BOGEY 2 CONTACTS

If not prebriefed, now is the time to decide on a DCA plan. On intraflight, the flight lead could call:

 FLIGHT. SKATE 1 SHOT PER GROUP; SHORT SKATE 1 SHOT PER CONTACT AND CRANK; BANZAI 2 SHOTS PER CONTACT AND BRACKET

Here, SHADOW 11 plans to execute a SKATE once the 2 contacts cross the Commit Line and launch one missile.

If the SKATE does not achieve the objective, the flight will RESET (more on that later) and execute a SHORT SKATE once the group crosses into MREZ, with a CRANK, shooting 2 missiles — one per contact.

If that also fails and the group crosses into HREZ, the flight plans to execute a BANZAI and shoot 2 missiles per contact. (BRACKET is covered in Air Combat Maneuvers (ACM).)

For this example we will assume the SKATE was successful.

The Commit

Once the group of bogeys crosses the Commit Line (CL), the flight lead calls MAGIC:

 SHADOW11 MAGIC RECOMMEND COMMIT NORTH GROUP

 MAGIC SHADOW11 COMMIT NORTH GROUP BULLSEYE 060 30 25 THOUSAND HOT HOSTILE 2 CONTACTS

 COMMIT NORTH GROUP SHADOW11

Note: A commit can also be called onto multiple groups.

Targeting

The next step is targeting. Targeting is an important tool when there are multiple groups inside the lane or battlespace. It signals all surrounding fighters that your flight is taking responsibility for engaging a certain group.

There are two brevity calls associated with targeting:

TARGET — Assignment of targeting responsibilities.

TARGETING — Fighter has acquired the assigned group and assumed responsibility for it.

TARGET is used to assign targeting responsibilities within a commit:

 #1 TARGET NORTH GROUP SHADOW11

Once the target appears on the fighter's radar:

 #1 TARGETED NORTH GROUP SHADOW11

Or, if committed on multiple groups:

 #1,2 TARGET WEST GROUP; #3,4 TARGET EAST GROUP. SHADOW11

Once the targets appear on the fighters' radars:

 #1 TARGETED WEST GROUP SHADOW11

 #2 TARGETED WEST GROUP SHADOW11

 #3 TARGETED EAST GROUP SHADOW11

 #4 TARGETED EAST GROUP SHADOW11

Meld, Sorting, and JUDY

Once all contacts are on radar, the flight lead will proceed with sorting and call MELD. If the flight does not require any further situational awareness information from MAGIC, the flight lead will call JUDY.

REF: BVR III

Transition Range (TR) and Weapon Employment

Finally, we reach the point where a missile can be fired. The Transition Range is defined as the range at which a launched FOX-3 missile can go active before the OUT at MOR. This requires practice and mental arithmetic to get right, and is the flight lead's responsibility.

Once the flight lead calls:

 #2 ENGAGE

1. 2 fires their missile, and the flight lead calls on MAGIC:

 MAGIC SHADOW11 FOX3 NORTH GROUP LEAD CONTACT

 SHADOW11 MAGIC COPY SHOT

The First OUT

 MAGIC SHADOW11 OUT SOUTH DROPPING NORTH GROUP

The brevity DROPPING signals MAGIC that SHADOW flight has stopped monitoring NORTH GROUP and requires updated information.

After flying southbound and defeating any missiles the adversary may have launched, SHADOW flight prepares for the IN to confirm weapon effects or launch a second missile if necessary.

The IN

 MAGIC SHADOW11 IN TARGETED NORTH GROUP

Once SHADOW flight turns around, they confirm via their sensors that the adversary group has turned around and is proceeding back over the Commit Line.

Now it is time to return to the prebriefed position.

RESET

The RESET brevity signals exactly this. It is defined as: Proceed to prebriefed position / area of operations.

 MAGIC SHADOW11 RESET